Hete pepers kunnen slapeloze nacht voorkomen.*

- Een dieet waarbij regelmatig hete pepers worden gegeten, kan helpen tegen slapeloosheid en de hartslag gezond houden. In een kleine studie onderzochten onderzoekers van de universiteit van Tasmanië in Australië een groep vrijwilligers. Wanneer de proefpersonen dagelijks 30 gram chilipeper in hun eten hadden, vielen ze gemakkelijker in slaap.
"Ze zeiden ook dat ze beter wakker werden, meer energie leken te hebben en beter functioneerden gedurende de dag",  zei de onderzoeksleider, Andrew Davies.

Bewegingssensoren toonden aan dat de vrijwilligers na het eten van hete pepers minder bewogen in hun slaap en iets korter sliepen. Desondanks voelden ze zich energieker.

Diets high in chilli may help people nod off at night and bound out of bed more energetically in the morning, a pilot study suggests.

A Tasmanian physiologist, Andrew Davies, surveyed 25 volunteers on a controlled meal plan for four weeks and compared them on the same diet but with 30 grams of chopped chilli added daily.

Although their sleep quality appeared to be similar on both diets, Dr Davies said the participants felt they were able to fall asleep more easily when taking chilli. "They also said they woke better and seemed to have a bit more energy and were able to function better during the day," he said after addressing the Australasian Sleep Association conference on the Gold Coast.

Dr Davies, of the University of Tasmania in Launceston, said eight of the volunteers had been fitted with equipment designed to measure their movement for five days.

He found that on the spicy diet, they recorded fewer movements during sleep and tended not to sleep quite as long, yet they had more energy during the day. The study was too small to draw any definitive judgements about the effect of chilli on sleep, but Dr Davies hopes to continue the research using more volunteers.